Susan Mosher as Sipkins, Farrah Alvin as Harriet and Kate Loprest as Emma in " The Single Girls Guide," a new musical at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany March 5 through March 30. (JOE SCHUYLER photo)

ALBANY -- Capital Repertory Theatre has been bestowed a rare honor: the opportunity to host the world premiere of a new musical inspired by a beloved classic novel.

"The Single Girls Guide," which opens Tuesday and runs through March 30 at the venue, refracts the popular 19th-century Jane Austen novel "Emma" through the lens of the protofeminist 1960s, set to a musical score. It is the latest collaboration between Alabama-based composer Tommy Newman and New York-based director Gordon Greenberg, who wrote the show's book.

Greenberg is no stranger to Capital Rep.

"I definitely have a great sentimental attachment to being here," he said.

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He originated a streamlined "Jacques Brel" at Capital Rep several seasons back. He also directed the well-received Albany production of Moises Kaufman's "33 Variations" two seasons ago.

Greenberg has earned a reputation as a musical re-worker, breathing new life into older works.

"My original impulse wasn't to write things, but to decode them, to make them better," he said.

"Single Girls" is based on Austen's comedy of manners about rich, headstrong Emma Woodhouse and her penchant for meddlesome matchmaking despite her own shaky romantic track record.

"In reconsidering it, I thought it would be fun to set it in another time period," Greenberg said. "And I quickly became enamored with setting it in the '50s or '60s and making her sort of a Helen Gurley Brown figure, an advice columnist who influences other women. This Emma is all about telling women they don't really need men."

Greenberg's collaborator, Newman, was also drawn to the 1960s vibe -- "this girl-groupy kind of music," as he puts it.

Greenberg has been working on "Single Girls" for nearly two years. He said he's been encouraged by the support of Capital Rep Artistic Director Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill, even in the earliest stages.

"Maggie Cahill is such a great friend and supporter and takes such leaps of faith," he said. "She's one of those rare people who can say, 'We're 40 to 50 percent of the way there, we're going to schedule a production for next year.' "

Newman is a native of small-town Hawkinsville, Ga.

"I was tangentially involved with theater as a kid. I grew up with a father involved in community theater," he said. "I didn't know that musical theater was where I belonged until I started writing songs when I was 16."

Newman had earned a scholarship to study chemical engineering at Georgia Tech, but, "with no prompting whatsoever," he decided to instead study music at Alabama's Troy State, where he is now a member of the faculty. He later studied musical theater at New York University's Tisch School, also Greenberg's alma mater.

Of the nearly finished production, Newman said, "I love the surprise of walking in and having it look nothing at all like what you saw in your head."

His ambition: "I'd love to see it done in regional houses, of course. It has a good look for that kind of production. But I'd also like to think it has a commercial future. But I'm not getting my hopes up too high."

Greenberg, who directs the Albany cast, agrees.

"I don't think a show is ever completely finished," he said. "But this is far more advanced beyond what we had a year before."

He thinks his thoroughly modern Emma may be ready for her close-up.

"There are lots of producers kind of circling who came to see this in New York in its earlier incarnation," Greenberg said. "Hopefully some of them will come up here to see it, and hopefully some down the line will take it under wing."